This invention relates generally to apparatus for facilitating a user to select, coordinate, appraise and harmonize garment clothing without actually putting on the garment.
The prior art reveals many garment hangers having a facial drawing combined with a garment hanger for store display purposes. For example only, attention is directed to the following U.S. Patents:
U.S. Pat. Nos. Des. 253,447 1,096,018 3,126,237 4,739,911.
The present invention is firstly directed to an apparatus disclosed in applicant""s U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/374,657, pending issue. This apparatus comprises a photograph representing the life-size visual representation of a particular user""s face. Such apparatus can be especially featured to provide an unusual application so as to assist the user in selecting clothing articles which coordinate to form an attractive outfit for that user. An enhancement of this embodiment is to arrange a set up for an apparel retail shop to instantly capture the life size facial image of a preferred customer and print it on the medial portion of a garment hanger. The customer then make use of this special apparatus to support and coordinate their selected apparel and has a quick appraisal of the harmony effect with his/her face on it without actually putting on the apparel.
In accordance of another preferred embodiment, the frame member is configured in the form of a stand. An electronics display apparatus such as a computer monitor is provided at the top of the stand to display a personalized facial image. Receiver means such as hooks or receiver slots are provided behind the display region to receive the suspension hook of a garment hanger. For a user to coordinate or appraise the look of a particular garment, the garment supported on a regular hanger is supported by one of the receiver means such that the garment appears to be dressed by the user. The receiver means can be configured to enable vertical position adjustment so that the relative position of the garment from the facial image of the user can be adjusted to a proper location. A simple way to enable vertical adjustment is to offer more than one receiver hooks, one on top of another. In order to provide a personalized facial image for a customer, the fashion store is equipped with an apparatus to capture the facial image of a customer. Electronics cameras and scanners are representative apparatus used to convert the facial image of a customer into electronics data suitable to be displayed on the computer monitor on top of the stand, for displaying the facial image. A code word can be assigned to distinguish the digital image of one customer from another. This personalized coordination apparatus is not only an invaluable hospitality facility for the customers visiting the store, it offers the function to encourage customer to purchase the garment displayed under the computer monitor. The set up increase the efficiency for customers to check the matching of apparel and encourage them to try more different designs without actually putting the apparel on. As a result a store with limited space can handle a greater customer flow because the time spent by a customer to complete the transaction is reduced. The number of changing rooms required the customer""s shopping requirements is also reduced. The room efficiency is particular important for stores having a limited floor space. Another advantage is that some garment of special nature such as T-shirt of delicate material is not recommended to be tested as they tend to be deformed by customers.
The term personalize is important to distinguish the invention with the prior art having simply a hanger and a facial drawing displayed at the medial portion of the hanger, such as Tully, U.S. Des. Pat. No. 253,447. A personalized coordination apparatus is a process with which a consumer has the right of choice which real person face image to be put onto the display region. In most situations the facial image selected belongs to the consumer, their relatives, friends or other specifically selected person. The personalized process is defined by any of the following characteristics when compared with a commercial display hanger having a facial drawing. Firstly, the coordination apparatus displays a facial image of a xe2x80x9cuserxe2x80x9d, instead of a non-removable beautifully designed facial image of a model. Secondly, the facial image of xe2x80x9canyxe2x80x9d user can be displayed on the computer monitor. The image of choice is therefore an important characteristic of the subject invention. Consumers have a desire to try the coordination apparatus because they have the control to select the facial image of choice. Commercial displaying hanger having a fixed facial image of a model does not provide choice of facial image for the consumer.
Another characteristic of the invention is that a proper coding system about the facial image is required by the subject invention to distinguish one face from another. When the invented apparatus is not being used by a customer, the system may pick up a default facial images of one or more models, possibly of different ethnic, different facial expressions, hair characteristics or different ages. These facial images may be displayed in sequence to attract different kinds of visiting customers
In order to provide a friendly personalized service for different people, an efficient photo imaging process is provided at a point of sale. Cameras, scanners, picture editing facilities such as chroma-key equipment, and special photo treating software are also recommended.
In a different embodiment, a thin profile LCD monitor is particularly suitable for this application. In another preferred embodiment, garment-supporting frame in the shape of a human torso is positioned just below the computer monitor to provide the same function of the stand. It should be noted that sometimes a partial torso is adequate to provide the effect for the display apparatus invented. In yet another preferred embodiment, receiver means is provided behind the computer monitor to receive the hook of a garment hanger which supports the garment to be viewed. A preferred process to make use of this facility is as follow:
(1) Provide a facial image capture set up at a point of sale.
(2) Facial image of customers are collected with this setup.
(3) A facial image captured is digitized into electronics data represented by numbers of 1 and 0; and stored in a file.
(4) A code word or file name is assigned to each file to identify the facial image of one customer from another.
(5) The file is decoded and displayed on the computer monitor mounted on top of the garment displaying stand.
(6) Input device such as key pad, joystick, mouse, any other pointing device or voice recognition device are equipped to identify the facial image to be displayed and also to provide adjustment, options selection and modification of the facial image or the relative position of the image to be displayed.
Various facial image modification software are available in the market to change the color balance, provide visual effect and touch up deficiencies in the image capture or photo taking process. With more investment, multiple facial images of the customer different viewing angles can be collected. In this situation, the display stand requires rotation means for the viewing garment to be rotated when the orientation of the facial image is changed. If multiple facial images are collected at a high frame rate such as 25 frames per second while the viewing angle is continuously changing, the playback of the facial image at the monitor will provide a movie like movement result. To fully match with the movie play back effect, such as a head is turning left or right, the garment displaying mechanism is required to be moved in the same direction and in synchronization with the head turning motion displayed. The overall result becomes an animated presentation of the garment coordination and matching with the user.
Once a customer registered his/her facial image at a face image capturing facility, the selected image file identified by a code word can be sent to a remote computer by a communication channel. A network or communication channel refer to any means connecting two computing devices together, including but not limited to internet, intranet, extranet, ISDN, DSL and LAN. The communication channel can be provided by wired lines such as cable, optical lines or telephone lines. It can be connected to the computer by any commercially format of communication such as COM port, parallel port, USB port or any later developed technology to handle data transfer. The communication channel can be furnished by wireless channel such as RF and infra red channels as well. This user friendly service gives customers greater confidence before they decide a purchase and therefore avoids returns.
An enhancement of the system is to provide a local or centralized computer system storing the facial images of different customers. The data representing the facial image of a customer is sent to the display monitor of any similar set up in the store, in response to a request made by a customer. A customer may submit a request by keying his/her code word at a particular display station, or by submitting a tag containing the code. Typical examples of the personalized tag is a card containing optical sensitive data, magnetic encoded data or RF identification circuitry.
Another decentralized system of the invention is to store the facial image of a user in a miniature portable memory media such as magnetic floppy diskette, CD ROM or CD RAN. This portable media is kept by the user, their relatives or friends who want to purchase garment for the user. In this system, every display station should provide a facility to read the facial image data from the memory media.